The notorious wife of serial killer Fred West may no longer be a top-level security inmate when her prison unit closes, it emerged today.

Rose West will be moving because Durham prison, currently the only prison in England and Wales to hold female high-security inmates, is to be stripped of its high security Category A status to become a "community jail".

A Home Office spokeswoman later confirmed that they hoped to reduce the security classification of all seven Category A women at Durham to enable them to be held at either of two new private jails, in London and Peterborough.

The Prison Service made the announcement in the wake of a highly critical report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons, published today.

Top-security male prisoners at the jail will also be moved, including Michael Sams who received four life sentences in 1993.